You have to start somewhere

And that somewhere might as well be here. I am currently in Seattle and have been here for the last week, gone from home for 10 days--a time period that seems both shorter and longer than that at the same time. I am starting to readjust to a lifestyle/mentality without work (and a constant focus on saving) and trying to wrap my head around the idea that spending money without working is OK for now. A few more days and I think I will nearly be there...welcome to the world of unemployment!

Goodbyes are always something I have found rather strange, such a big deal, but often so anti-climactic. I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they say goodbye. I bring this up because the last couple weeks have been full of goodbyes--to my parents, my friends in Driggs, my sister, and others along the way. I have vacillated between thinking these goodbyes should be momentous, meaningful affairs--road marks along the way to whatever the universe has to throw at me next-- and simply feeling as if they were natural parts of a progression, in someways meaningless; because, how can you sum up the importance of a relationship with a simple goodbye? With a final lunch date, a hug, a kiss, a goodbye wish? You can't, so the goodbye is moot. Goodbyes--to me--are not inherently sad, or even necessarily momentous; they may be significant, but I don't think they were meant to be sad. Every goodbye means a new hello is right around the corner. How wonderful is that? In the most mundane of situations, you say goodbye to the bellman and hello to the taxi driver, goodbye to the taxi driver and hello to the receptionist and so on. For me, I said goodbye to my parents, and hello to my sister, than goodbye to her and hello to good friends in Seattle, and so it will continue...